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As a small business owner, this is what I fear post-South Dakota vs. Wayfair

By Blog

As the owner of a small business that will be impacted by the recent Supreme Court decision on online purchases and local tax collection (South Dakota vs. Wayfair), I hope the resulting outcry will be a catalyst for streamlining tax payments to local authorities across the country. But I’m not holding my breath.

In a perfect world, states would make things easier for out-of-state small businesses to pay taxes. Changes could include:

  • Ending registration requirements at the state level
  • Only taking annual filings instead of demanding monthly or quarterly filings
  • Using a 1-page form for submitting taxes
  • Accepting digital submissions & payments

But these are old-school state governments we’re talking about. Many are stuck in the past, or are restricted in their ways of thinking about the future.

And then there is the ugly fact that some bureaucrats and legislators LOVE to stick it to outsiders. Example: New Hampshire toll booths strategically placed along the Massachusetts border to collect money from vacationers and commuters using small stretches of state or interstate highways. Or, state-level protectionism for local businesses. I’ve encountered this trying to sell books and educational aids to local school districts in the South. Either you can’t sell, or the paperwork requirements are astounding. These aren’t taxes, but they illustrate the mindsets of many state legislatures and bureaucracies when it comes to dealing with out-of-staters.

When it comes time for state lawmakers and officials to craft tax laws for out-of-state small businesses post-#SDvWayfair, they won’t necessarily be thinking of making it easier to file. They’ll think: Why not adapt existing frameworks/processes, with a dollop of extra red tape on top?

Mass Department of Revenue taxes South Dakota vs. WayfairRegarding technology such as digital submissions of tax data and easy online payments: If the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (the agency my Massachusetts corporation deals with) is anything to go by, small businesses will basically be dealing with tech that’s 10 years out of date in terms of functionality, and twice as difficult to use as commercial platforms.

Monumental changes in the nation’s legal framework are often an opportunity to make improvements in the way laws are implemented. But when it comes to the South Dakota vs. Wayfair Supreme Court ruling, I fear they’ve just given 50 state governments and assorted territories an excuse to screw the little guy.

How to file a DMCA takedown request to remove pirated ebooks from Google

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This week, I spent several hours dealing with sites that illegally post pirated copies of In 30 Minutes ebooks, allowing people to download them for free (or for an illicit fee, none of which goes back to the authors). Ebook piracy not only takes money away from the authors who created the content, pirate sites can sometimes outrank legitimate sources of ebooks on Google and other search engines. It’s almost impossible to remove the content from the torrent sites that host the pirated content, but there are ways to take the fight further up the food chain using a standard DMCA takedown request (DMCA stands for digital millennium copyright act):

  1. Filing a DMCA takedown request with the sites that link to the torrents
  2. Filing a DMCA takedown request with the hosting companies of the sites that link to the torrents
  3. Asking Google to remove references in Google Search by filing DMCA notices

I’m not going to go deeply into what the DMCA is or how it works, but for the sake of this post it gives limited legal rights to authors and publishers who have discovered unauthorized copies of their ebooks (ePub, mobi, or PDF) floating around the Internet. It can also be used to fight bogus “bloggers” who take pirated content and use the text and images for blog posts beyond what Fair Use would allow. Unfortunately, the DMCA can be abused, and I have actually seen cases of authors being hit by bogus DMCA claims by pirates for their own works, as if the pirates had created the ebook!

Why send a DMCA takedown request to Google?

This short tutorial concerns how authors can use a standard DMCA takedown request to fight ebook pirates. I’ve found it’s very difficult to ask the sites themselves to comply — even though many of them contain “DMCA” links which supposedly enable copyright holders to file a DMCA takedown request, half the time the pages lead to 404 errors or dead email addresses. The other half have working email addresses or Web forms, but many of them don’t result in takedowns either. Filing DMCA notices with the registrar or hosting company is also problematic — registrars want nothing to do with copyright disputes, and the hosting company is often hard to identify or claim they can’t do anything (this is particularly true for overseas domains).

That leaves Google. The idea here is if you can remove a reference to a pirate site from Google search, it not only reduces the likelihood of the pirated content being downloaded, it hits the offending site where it hurts by reducing traffic and advertising impressions.

The easy way to identify offending content is to search Google for the title of the book and scroll through the results. You can also set up a Google Alert to automatically mail newly indexed content that features the name of your book. Here’s what happened when I searched for the PDF edition of my quick Excel guide:

Google DMCA takedown request pirated ebooks

The first two results lead to sites that link to pirated copies. They feature unauthorized use of copyrighted content, including descriptions and cover images. They push down links to authorized sites where readers can purchase the guide, including the official Excel Basics In 30 Minutes website. The pirate links also expose readers to potential computer hazards, including malware and other scams.

How to file a DMCA takedown request with Google

How can authors or publishers ask Google to remove these results from Web search? Use the special Google form at http://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_dmca?&product=websearch. The form asks you to identify yourself, to describe the content in question, to include links to legitimate versions of the book or ebook, and then list the offending links. You have to swear to the following:

  1. I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  2. The information in this notification is accurate and I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Note that your name and complaint may also be submitted to the Chilling Effects project, meaning that it will be publicly available. This could be a concern for authors who use pen names.

Because I usually have to file the same type of complaint against different parties, I use a a DMCA takedown request template and copy and paste the contents into the form, depending on the title being infringed and the content that has been used without permission:

I am the author and publisher of [TITLE OF BOOK]. This is an ebook and paperback (ISBN: [ISBN NUMBER GOES HERE]) that is about [NUMBER] pages long. My company [NAME OF PUBLISHER] holds all rights to this work, including text, logos, and cover images.

The book description and cover image have been appropriated without my permission on the website [WEBSITE DOMAIN] and subsequently appear in Google search results. The site further contains links to download unauthorized copies of the work.

I also have prepared links of legitimate versions of the content to paste into the form (e.g., official website, Amazon, Google Play, Google Books, etc.).

Filing a DMCA takedown request takes about 2 minutes using the template. Google usually responds quickly, although in some instances I have had to follow up with additional information (this is often the case for bloggers who are republishing scraped ebook content). For people with Google Webmaster Tool accounts, you can review the status of all DMCA takedown requests here.

Do you have problems with ebook pirates? How have you dealt with the pirates? Share your story in the comments below.

Educational License for LinkedIn In 30 Minutes

By Blog

We recently began offering educational licenses to In 30 Minutes guides. Here are the terms for the Educational License for LinkedIn In 30 Minutes:

Educational License Terms

  • LinkedIn In 30 Minutes is provided to the purchasing educational institution under the terms of a non-transferable, one-year educational license.
  • This Educational License applies to the PDF, .epub, and .mobi versions of LinkedIn In 30 Minutes.
  • The Educational License is valid for one year from the date of purchase or the start of the subscription.
  • The purchasing institution warrants that copies of the files shall only be distributed to students, faculty, and staff of the school.
  • The purchasing institution may not rent, sell, or redistribute copies of the digital content to any other people, or make the files publicly available on any network, device, storage service, or Internet-connected computer.
  • The purchasing institution may not create derivative works from the contents of the guide, or encourage others to do so.
  • The digital content is provided “AS IS” and neither the author nor publisher i30 Media Corporation shall have any obligation to provide maintenance, support, enhancements or modifications thereto. i30 Media Corporation specifically disclaim all express and implied warranties of any kind including, but not limited to, any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. In no event shall i30 Media Corporation or the author be liable to any party for direct, indirect, special, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages however caused and on any theory of liability arising in any way related to the digital content, even if i30 Media Corporation or the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. To the maximum extent not prohibited by law or regulation, the purchasing institution and affiliates further assume all liability for their use, reproduction, display, or distribution of the digital content and agree to indemnify and hold harmless i30 Media Corporation and the author from and against any and all claims, suits, actions, demands and judgments arising therefrom.
  • Any use, reproduction or distribution of the digital content which is not in accordance with this Educational License shall automatically revoke all rights granted to the purchasing institution.
  • This Educational License does not grant any rights in or to any intellectual property owned by i30 Media Corporation except those rights expressly granted hereunder.